The Unsuspected Punch
by Lacrimosa Cruentus Luna
Summary: Sometimes it takes an unsuspected punch from an unsuspected person to make you laugh. A quick one-shot.


**If someone had told me yesterday that I would be writing this...I wouldn't be at all surprised. But whatever. I really like the thought of Sydney and Adrian together and I really hope that's what eventually happens, although I have absolutely no clue how that could ever happen so I'm not even going to try and write that. I just got this thought in my head and couldn't resist writing it. **

**Disclaimer: Vampire Academy belongs to Richelle Mead. As will Bloodlines when it comes out...**

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><p>Adrian Ivashkov <em>did not <em>mope. He was far too attractive for such things. Adrian Ivashkov did, however, stumble around drunkenly. As a matter of fact, he was doing as much when he caught sight of a blond girl who seemed vaguely familiar to him, even in his heavily inebriated state. It might have been the strange, gold lily that was tattooed on her cheek.

_Alchemist_.The word reverberated around his head almost painfully.

Adrian decided that it would be a mighty fine idea to follow her around. So he did.

Much to his annoyance, she didn't do much. In fact, she seemed to be clinging desperately to the shadows, determined to go unseen.

Slowly, Adrian began to remember her. She was the one Rose Hathaway had so easily abandoned for her own happiness. At the thought, Adrian's smile grew. There was a slightly savage tint to it. Rose had left a long trail of people behind her. Collateral damage was probably all she thought of them. What about Christian? What would he do now? What would he _face_? First he parents go all Strigoi, then his aunt assassins the queen. What would people think of him?

Of course, he had Lissa, so things probably wouldn't be too godawful for him, but that wasn't the point. The point was that there was also Jill. Poor, poor Jailbait. Had Rose ever once thought of _her_ when she was on her rampage of destruction? Probably not. She had her Russian hubby after all.

And last but not least...what about Adrian?

Later Adrian would think (however briefly) that spirit was probably getting to him, driving him closer and closer to insanity. But then he would tell himself Rose had been somewhat of a catalyst to that. Then he would go find something else to drink and forget about it entirely. That was the whole idea of the enterprise.

At the moment, however, the alchemist girl had paused. Adrian waited patiently, but she just continued to stand.

Adrian struggled to remember her name.

_Sandra. _

_Shelly. _

_Samantha. _

_Sydney. _

_Sally. _

_Soph—wait. No. _

_Sydney. Yes, that's right. _

Proud of himself for remembering her name at long, long last, Adrian waltzed over to her, completely oblivious of what would happen next.

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><p>Call her crazy, but there was something that really bothered Sydney about being stalked by unholy creatures of the night when she was trying to avoid detection. Of course, Sydney didn't ever like being stalked, but it was being stalked by vampires that terrified her the most.<p>

After all, they didn't just suck blood. They also abandoned you, just when you thought you made a fantastic friend. Sydney grimaced. She didn't want to think about Rose because that made her think about Abe...about what was going to happen next. Given choice, Sydney wouldn't even be here. But Abe had called and when Abe called, Sydney came, even if it meant she had to sneak around trying to avoid conversation with any of the creatures around her—and avoid getting her blood sucked out of her body. This is what she got for selling her soul to the devil.

The devil. The vampires.

She shuddered. She didn't want to think about them any more than she wanted to think about Rose or Abe.

So she focused on the eyes that were boring into her back.

She'd tried to lose whoever it was, too afraid of turning around to identify her stalker. But he/she/it was annoyingly persistent.

Suddenly, Sydney was angry. This thing was following her and she was running from it! Hadn't she been through worse than this? Yes, yes she had. In fact, Sydney was pretty sure she could take on the unholy abomination behind her. She didn't know where this newfound bravery came from. Actually, it probably wasn't bravery at all. She was just furious with the whole world for shoving her into this awful position so she was going to throw a temper tantrum of strange violence. Her stalker was in for a big surprise.

She stayed still for several minutes, waiting, waiting, waiting. Finally, she heard soft footsteps coming closer. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could do this.

Eyes still closed, Sydney whipped around, fist flying out.

Remarkably, it made its mark.

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><p>Adrian opened his mouth to say hi—although it probably would've come out something like "Hefjg"—but Sydney turned around faster than he could blink.<p>

He barely had time to notice that her eyes were squeezed shut before her first smashed into his cheek, knocking him down to the ground.

"Ow," he said, stunned.

Sydney's eyes flew wide open in equal surprise.

"I know you," she said.

"Do you always hit people you know?" Adrian asked her, rubbing his cheek thoughtfully. It seemed her well-placed punch had knocked him sober. Well, relatively sober.

"Only when they're unholy creatures of the night," Sydney retorted. He didn't remember her being so...vocal. "And when they're stalking me."

"I wasn't stalking you!" Adrian protested. It was a blatant lie, but he couldn't really care less.

"Well," Sydney said, "I have places to be, so as nice as it wasn't to see you, I have to make this visit short and leave."

She turned away, but he jumped up at caught her wrist. He didn't miss her visible flinch or attempt to tug away the moment their skin made contact. It was like he had burned her. Immediately, whatever bravado she'd been clinging to vanished and her fear took over. It fascinated him all the more.

At that very thought, his heart seized painfully.

He knew this. He'd gone down this path before. He'd been fascinated by a girl, so he'd chased her down and look where _that_ had gotten him.

But in some ways, Sydney was different.

That was a lie.

Sydney was different in all ways.

"You sure you don't want to—" he started again, but was cut off by yet another punch. He dropped her wrist. So maybe she had a little bit of bravado left. He should've expected that one.

"I've got a place to be," Sydney ground out. She looked a mix of terrified, furious, and proud.

Adrian wasn't sure why he said what he did next, but he said it and when he did, he got the strangest feeling that he'd done the right thing.

"I'll go with you," he said.

At the look of absolute horror on Sydney's face, he laughed (just a little bit) for the first time in too long. Despite the fact that his face hurt like all hell's wrath, he couldn't help but think that it was worth it.

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><p>And so concludes my little one-shot thingy.<p> 


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